Brown, Red, Blue and Violet

Raymond K. Parker

Abstract Expressionist and Color Field painter/printmaker Raymond Parker did this color lithograph in 1969 with Collectors Press in San Francisco, California, working with Master Printer Ernest de Soto. The shapes are flat and the colors are pure and unvarying. Parker did not title his paintings, preferring to number them chronologically, the lithographs he created at Collectors Press are titled by the colors he used.

Like many artists of the time, Parker was a fan of jazz music, and his interest in jazz, combined with his interest in a gestural abstract expressionism, led to his improvised painting style. Parker was also a great admirer of the painter Henri Matisse and he looked to this artist’s work, especially the cut out forms in Matisse's "Jazz" portfolio for inspiration in terms of color and form, especially in this lithograph from 1969 and in his paintings of the 1970s and 1980s.